SOME EARLY DESCRIPTIONS OF AURORAE IN CHINA

Eight accounts from ancient Chinese literature have been found that de scribe phenomena in contexts and in metaphors that are distinctly auro ral. These accounts relate to personages purported to have lived in th e third millennium B.C. The historicity of the personages and the actu al dates of their lives are still a matter of controversy. Thus the ac counts should be considered at a minimum as valuable additions to the inventory of ancient allusions to the aurora. At the other extreme, if taken at face value, they document the occurrence of low-latitude aur orae in the third millennium B.C.